To be annoyed by total phone ban

Smart watches are banned at our school and have to go into the yondr pouches along with the phones at the start of the day.

I don't know what world you live in but a mobile that can reach me is a hell of a lot more reliable than the kindness of strangers. We have a bus driver up thread who dropped a kid in the wrong village on purpose and no consequences. Im disabled, bus drivers dont even wait for you to sit down before taking off, no care if you'll fall. They don't have time to let passengers sit down but do have time to call the parents of lost tweens and teens?
Police officers for sure, my kids know theyre safe to ask, but it's not like there's one of them on every corner. Random adult in street or bus stop, train platform is highly unlikely to hand their phone over to a kid. Some might call if they have time. One of my Autistic DC has situational mutism, even assuming a stranger would actually help, she couldn't ask.

The benefits of students not having use of 'phones in school have been huge. School representatives have said a lot of students don't seem to be too bothered by a ban, it's the parents who have the problems.

No its bitchy and dismissive to say ‘well I managed 15 plus years ago’ could actually be a lot more and not see the other issues.

One of my kids is an adult. One is a kid teen and both very independent thanks.

side note it’s also bitchy and dismissive to assume someone’s parent is inadequate and not going to produce a fully functioning adult. Or assume they can’t possibly have kids that are already fully functioning adults. Because they disagreed with you.

Those help for basic contact, but if you have kids using smart phones for bus passes, diabetes management, reminders for drugs it just doesn't work.

They are tools to be used wisely.

Schools don’t allow smart watches either though! I would imagine even in a bag, they would have the same consequences to mobile phones if found for the OP

I'd be calling the school every time my kid was even ten minutes later than expected to see where he was and kicking up a big stink about it. I'd be encouraging like-minded parents to do the same. I get that it's tricky because phones do cause problems in class and at school generally but searching people's bags for phones is bloody ridiculous. Knives, yes. Phones, no. They could use the time they spend doing that for developing a sensible phone policy instead.

I think something like the yondr pouches is a good idea. And I know schools don't have a lot of money but surely this would be something the school could charge for.

Smart watch. My 10 year old has one. No phone/social media etc but we can still call/text each other and I can see her location.

don’t understand why more people don’t use these.

Welcome to 2024 when adults expect teens to have phone and no one cares. Like I said bus drivers don’t and won’t care most of the time. Kids don’t want to talk to strangers quite rightly. I’m not sure if you’ve got teens / pre teens travelling but I wouldn’t want mine asking a stranger for their phone in a vulnerable position. As for asking a police officer or paramedic, yes I regularly see those just strolling down the street in case of an emergency, not.
In the good old days you used a phone box. They were everywhere and you reversed the charges. They don’t exist now.

Each child is issued with a yondr pouch which they carry with them (including home). The phones are locked into the pouches during tutor time and the child keeps the pouch in their bag. Last class of the day, they use the magnet device to unlock their pouch and remove the phone. Each classroom has an unlocking device. It's a simple tap, not complicated or lengthy.

Allowing so called 'dumb phones' would be an easy fix. Just ban smart phones.

I would recommend reading 'the anxious generation' by Jonathan Haidt if you need convincing why smartphones in schools are a bad idea.

Genuine question - how does this work? Tell me more?

Trouble is, some kids will ALWAYS break the rules - very likely even with parents’ sanction - so they end up with a total ban.

If kids really do need to be contactable, I don’t see why cheap non-smart phones can’t be allowed.

Locked magnetic pouches are defo the way forward. An investment but means an enforceable secure solution.

Each classroom has an unlocking device.

They're not all in the same class all day. I imagine the kids have to go to their form rooms in those schools which do this.

I really don't think that's acceptable in this day and age. Kids travel alone quite a distance for school. They have transport cards on their phones, there are medical apps for kids with diabetes.

Disconnecting kids from their parents on their journeys to and from school is really not acceptable.

What if a kid is walking home and starts getting harassed by a man, they have no way of calling the police.

There was a kid stabbed in the news the other day while leaving school, imagine a bunch of kids seeing that and having no way of calling for help.

Irresponsible and unsafe. What was wrong with you lost your phone if it disturbed the class?

Hasn't been a problem at all with DS school at all, and it's a huge secondary. They carry the pouches themselves in their bags all day and each classroom has an unlocking magnet. Takes seconds for each kid to tap unlock their pouch on the way out of the last class of the day.
No idea how much it cost the school, but it's been extremely effective.

Indeed.

I'm a governor at a primary school and this term the head has yet again spent an inordinate amount of time dealing with phone and social media-related trouble.

To those mentioning the old pre-mobile days and that there were phone boxes if kids had emergencies - they weren't much use to those of us whose parents didn't have landlines put in. Mine didn't get one until I was 21 and had already left home.

🙄

Oh I dunno, maybe in some crazy world, where children in school are generally not left unsupervised, maybe if there was a issue an adult could phone the parents on the child's behalf.

Or a bus driver, or a police officer, or a paramedic, or any adult, anywhere.

You know, like people used to do.

Some PPs said their kids schools use them, they'd probably have a better idea how it actually works I'd suggest asking them. It certainly wouldn't be reception or one or two people dealing with 1200 of them. First teacher of the day locks, last unlocks seems a sensible way of doing things. So 30 phones not 1200.

Those who didn't quite catch the tone of my post saying schools need to invest in lock boxes and sign phones in and out. To make it more clear the above is what needs to be done but no shit Sherlock course there's no money or staff to do it I was just stating the obvious solution 🤦🏻‍♀️ 🤣

But that’s how it is unfortunately. The bus driver will not care at all if there is an issue. I have first hand proof. My sons friend was being too loud on the bus a couple of years ago and to teach him a lesson the bus driver deliberately didn’t stop at his stop and drove straight on to the next village. This boy had ASD and complexity freaked out. The next village was far too far to walk home. Bus shut doors and drove off. Thank god this boy had his phone to call his mum to pick him up. Complaint was made but nothing much done.
I’m telling you, it’s a brutal world and people just don’t care. I wouldn’t absolutely hate to think of any of my children stranded and alone with no way of contacting home.

School budgets are stripped back to ridiculous levels. Large schools don’t have the staffing or time to manage phone collections and handing them back in
This is the issue. Plus you get the ones who hide them (OP I’m looking at you) so a total ban seems easier to police from the school perspective.
Our secondary has a confiscation policy so they are allowed in school bags. They will shortly go the same way as the OP’s school because kids use them in the toilets and won’t come out, they call home and make stuff up, parents then call school, we get the kids who use them to bully, the kids who record teachers without their knowledge, fights being videoed and put on social media. I mean I could go on.

A total ban is the way forward.